Stars losing their stuff
or, where the stardust you are made of comes from
Wolf Rayet Star APEP. Image Credit: Han, White, and Pagan, STSci 11/25
Ben Dorman Ph.D., Centre of the Universe
Stars, which need to shine to survive, lose mass at all stages of their life cycle. From stars like the Sun which has a solar wind that gives rise to beautiful aurorae and sometimes messes up your WiFi, to Red and Asymptotic Giant stars that violently throw off outer layers and give rise to intricate Planetary Nebulae; to Wolf Rayet Stars and Supernovae, they shed layers and enrich the medium with elements and sometimes violence.
Our space telescopes such as the Parker Solar Probe, the Hubble Space Telescope and the Webb Space Telescope have allowed us to understand some of the most amazing stars in our Galaxy. I will do my level best to convey the richness of stellar mass loss phenomena.
Ben Dorman received a Ph.D. studying the late stages of stellar evolution from the University of Victoria and went on to study even more advanced evolutionary stages, and integrated properties of galaxies from space. He worked as a software engineer at NASA / Goddard Spaceflight Center, enhancing programs still used by X-Ray scientists around the world. After subsequent careers in IT as a software architect and cloud engineer he retired to lead the Centre of the Universe since 2015.
Tickets available on Tuesday July 14, 2026 at 5pm, and will be found below.